Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1887-05-13
Some Conjuring Feats.

A writer in the st. Louis Globe ID emo
orat discourses quite entertainingly of
the tricks of modern conjurer's Hat
tricks are very popular. There is a large
variety of them. Doll babies are pro-
duced from apparently empty tiles by the
dozen; reticules are drawn out in extra
ordinary numbers; cannon balls are I'M
expectedly discovered in them. The doll
babies are muslin contrivances built on
skeleton springs, and car be squeezed in
to space almost as thin as wrapping
paper; the recticules are folding paste
board contrivances, and all these articles
are fed into the hat from the pockets of
the magician's coat, or from the shelf be-
hind the table. The cannon ball-but
wait, here is a nice illusion-the shower
of money it is called. The magician Dor
rows high silk hat from the audience,
and, returning to the stage, remarks that
sees money floating in the air: he catches
at one invisible piece; and "plunkr it
goes into the hat. Everybody sees that
He throws it in. Now he catches at an
other piece. He throws that in, and the
clink is plainly heard as it strikes against
the first piece. He takes coin from the
toe of his boot and throws that in. He
runs down the platform and picks one
out of the beard of an auditor. In this
way he finds and throws in the hat ten
coins or fore, which are afterward poured
out on a salver for subsequent trick.
The 'shower is accomplished in this way:
The magician has ten pieces of money
concealed in his left hand, with which he
holds the hat. He has two coins palmed
in his right. The first of these he actu-
ally throws into the hat; the other he re-
tains through the trick, palming and re-
palming it until the last coin is caught,
when he drops it into the hat. The mon
ely dropped into the hat at other times is
is slipped from the fingers of the left
hand. When the magician is apparently
through with the hat he starts to return
it, showing by its exposure that it IS
empty; he returns to the table, however,
and picking from the SeTuaute with the
second finger of his right hand, which is
inserted in g convenient hole, wooden
cannon ball, by a simple upper move
ment of his finger the ball is inserted in
the hat, and as the audience haven't seen
the magician load the hat, they are great
ly astonished when the cannon ball is al
allowed to drop to the floor.
The vanishing lady is a new illusion &C
complished by means of trick chair and
d bEdp uoOI. IL HAS Dteu E6C6HblN OK
planned, but the aerial suspension act,
to which the magician will give greatest
prominence, is yet mystery to many
people. The Indian iugglers were the
only Acknowledgements who did this until
Robert Houdin solved it in 1S49. Then
Sylvester, the Fakir or Oolu, astonished
London with several improvements in it,
and De We're at the same time made a
sensation in Paris, The trick consists in
mesmerizing q lady and causing her to
assume various attitudes in mid air with
out other support than an upright bar
under her elbow. The upright rises from
low table about five feet long and raised
six inches above the stage floor. 1t can
be carelessly moved about to show that
there is no connection between the
table and the stage. Seeman, an old
time magician, after suspending the sub
ject at right angles TO the support, re-
moved the support and left her reclining
in air without any visible means of sus-
pension. The mechanism of this trick
is complicated. The upright rests in
socket in the low table, and the lady
wears an arm of steel or iron, padded
with a socket at the elbow, which fits into
the upright rod. There is a joint and
ratchet and pawl under the arm, which
makes it possible for the magician to
move the lady into, different positions.
The accompanying illustration will throw
more light upon this. Sylvester improv
ed the machinery so that he moved the
subject by merely tanning it, and he took
away the last support. This part of the
trick is done on darkened stage. The
support is of polished brass, and VIII en-
it is apparently taken away the only
thing removed is the brass casing of the
real support, which being the color of
the stage drapery, is not discernible.